Smriti Irani, who had been made the minister of information and broadcasting in the previous reshuffle, has now been divested of the portfolio following yesterday’s announcement. Independent charge of that department has now been handed over to Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore, who also handles the sports ministry.

These developments are said to have occurred following several recent controversies that rocked the I&B ministry after Smriti Irani took over. The most notable of these involved the PMO personally stepping in to revoke a controversial I&B ministry order regulating “fake news” which had drawn flak from every corner of the media industry.

Apart from that, the important ministry had been drawn into the negative limelight recently following a row involving President Ramnath Kovind’s participation in the National Film Awards ceremony for distributing prizes. Several eminent personalities of the film industry had publicly slammed the ministry for not informing them that the President would not be giving out all the awards.

Along with this change, the cabinet reshuffle also saw railways minister Piyush Goyal assuming additional charge of the finance and corporate affairs ministries until finance minister Arun Jaitley recuperates from his recent kidney transplant operation in AIIMS, Delhi.

Minister of State Alphons Kannanthanam was relieved from the ministry of electronics and information technology, which has now been handed over to SS Ahluwalia, who had been running the ministry of drinking water and sanitation until now.